First-year Prattville High coach Brian Pittman knew what he had in senior pitcher Jessica Cord, but he wanted her to save her best for the postseason.
“By design, I didn’t want to wear her out during the year, but now that we’re in postseason, she’s going to get the ball a lot more,” Pittman said.
That’s music to Cord’s ears.
“I’m a super competitive person and I feel like any game where our season is on the line, I want the ball, I want to be the person in that circle and I want it to be on my shoulders,” she said. “I want to carry the load. During the season, he talked to me and said, ‘I’m not going to pitch you too much, we’re going to need you in the postseason.’ It kind of sucked because I do want the ball every single game, I want to pitch the majority of the innings, but now as it’s coming time, I’m ready.”
The Chattanooga State signee will lead the Lions into the Central Regional at Lagoon Park Softball Complex on Thursday, needing two wins in the double-elimination tournament to advance to the state tournament in Oxford.
“I don’t expect the moment to be too big for us,” Pittman said. “We’ve been in situations where … eyes are on us and we’ve gone to Enterprise (for the area tournament) and won two the way we did, so I think we’re tested. The biggest thing for us is controlling our emotions.”
Prattville (24-17) has had its share of ups and downs all season, struggling at times to find an offense, making too many errors in the field, then suddenly playing well in all phases. It can be frustrating at times for a first-year coach and for an experienced player such as Cord, resiliency is an asset as the team goes through a season of highs and lows.
“It’s frustrating but being together as a team and understanding we’re going to have bad spots but just working together to build on that, I feel is a great representation of our year,” she said. “We started out really slow, with our hitting especially, but as the season went on, we’ve consistently gotten better. It also helps we’ve done a lot of team bonding, hanging out together as a team, and that obviously shows on the field.”
Cord was promoted to the varsity as a freshman in 2019 and said her final season has been the most enjoyable.
“The atmosphere is a lot different than it has been in previous years,” she said. “It’s fun. That’s what high school ball is all about.”
And while her numbers both at the plate and in the circle are solid, they are not as impressive as they might be if she played on a perennial playoff team all season. Her win-loss record (8-5), for example, doesn’t reflect how many low-scoring games she’s been a part of and how far the Lions have developed this season.
“I know if I make a mistake, the girls are going to pick me up and looking back earlier in the season, we didn’t do that,” Cord said. “It’s like a completely different team that we have going into regionals.”
At the plate, she is batting .306 and is first on the team in doubles (11) and second on the team with 29 RBIs. In the circle, she has thrown 111 innings in 20 appearances, striking out 120 while walking 53 for a 2.46 earned-run average. She also has a team-high three saves.
“I knew what we had with her on the mound,” Pittman said, “but all three pitchers — her, Kylie Jarman and Kaytie Chandler — have all done a great job. Jess has kind of been the one to take a step for us on the mound mentally and I think it’s helped the other two as well.”
Because of her experience, Cord knew that Pittman would lean heavily on her for leadership.
“Just the experience I bring and knowing what to do in situations, I’m the vocal leader along with the physical leader,” she said, “and he just puts his trust on me to show the team what to do and how to do it and keep a positive, upbeat vibe.”
That positive, upbeat attitude helped the Lions rally from a 4-0 deficit in the sixth inning of the area championship game at Enterprise last week. They hope to ride that momentum into the regionals this week at Lagoon Park.
“When we were hitting, our motto was ‘pass the bat,’” Cord said. “We had six outs left, use those six outs to the best of our ability. And we just kept passing the bat. We trusted each other and knew that if we didn’t do our job, the person behind us was going to pick us up and do their job.”
CENTRAL REGIONAL
Lagoon Park Softball Complex
CLASS 7A
Game 1 — Fairhope vs. Enterprise, Thursday, 9 a.m.
Game 2 — Prattville vs. Daphne, Thursday, 9 a.m.
Game 3 — Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, Thursday, 1:45 p.m.
Game 4 — Qualifier 1, Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, Thursday, 1:45 p.m.
Game 5 — Qualifier 2, Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3, Thursday, 4:45 p.m.
